To: President Donald Trump
An energy plan for the climate
We urge you, Mr. President, to make it clear that your administration is serious about defining an energy plan that is actually responsive to the immediate threats of climate change by working with Congress to pursue the following:
1. Eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies;
2. Stop the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all;
3. End the expansion of extreme fossil fuels such as tar sands bitumen, fracking for gas and oil, offshore drilling, and drilling in the Arctic; and
4. Build support and consensus for a real plan for the climate that adequately reduces greenhouse gas pollution, invests in renewable energy, and brings an end to our addiction to fossil fuels.
1. Eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies;
2. Stop the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all;
3. End the expansion of extreme fossil fuels such as tar sands bitumen, fracking for gas and oil, offshore drilling, and drilling in the Arctic; and
4. Build support and consensus for a real plan for the climate that adequately reduces greenhouse gas pollution, invests in renewable energy, and brings an end to our addiction to fossil fuels.
Why is this important?
The Obama administration has for years pushed a dangerous “All of the Above” energy plan focused on more drilling, more fracking, and more pipelines and handouts for dirty fuels.
In President Obama's election night victory speech last fall, he said to large applause:
"We want our children to live in an America ... that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”
But unfortunately an “All of the Above” energy plan that includes drilling for more oil, fracking for more gas, and pursuing the myth of “clean coal” virtually guarantees increasing climate change, and a dangerous world left for our children.
Even the International Energy Agency has said we have more carbon than we can afford to burn and the US oil boom won't lead to energy independence, in its World Energy Outlook.
The investments the oil industry alone is making right now, in line with an “All of the Above” approach, will put us on a path of climate change that goes well beyond the limits for a safe planet.
Promoting an All of the Above energy plan that includes increased drilling for oil and gas, while also pushing forward much-needed policies to address greenhouse gas emissions simply won't work. That’s like trying to climb out of a hole with one hand while digging yourself deeper in with the other. We need to stop digging.
Ahead of the anticipated announcment of new plans to tackle climate change by the Obama administration, President Obama has an important opportunity to reevaluate the “All of the Above” energy plans and design a new plan that can live up to his own aim: "an America that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet."
In President Obama's election night victory speech last fall, he said to large applause:
"We want our children to live in an America ... that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”
But unfortunately an “All of the Above” energy plan that includes drilling for more oil, fracking for more gas, and pursuing the myth of “clean coal” virtually guarantees increasing climate change, and a dangerous world left for our children.
Even the International Energy Agency has said we have more carbon than we can afford to burn and the US oil boom won't lead to energy independence, in its World Energy Outlook.
The investments the oil industry alone is making right now, in line with an “All of the Above” approach, will put us on a path of climate change that goes well beyond the limits for a safe planet.
Promoting an All of the Above energy plan that includes increased drilling for oil and gas, while also pushing forward much-needed policies to address greenhouse gas emissions simply won't work. That’s like trying to climb out of a hole with one hand while digging yourself deeper in with the other. We need to stop digging.
Ahead of the anticipated announcment of new plans to tackle climate change by the Obama administration, President Obama has an important opportunity to reevaluate the “All of the Above” energy plans and design a new plan that can live up to his own aim: "an America that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet."